Memory of a Mother
by Sufferingzombie
Summary: Inspired by aislin's story. Naruto believes his parents abandoned him, so he askes Kyuubi about his mother and the answers he recieves are not the answers he expected! I don't own anything and am broke, so even if you sue you'll get nothing
1. Chapter 1

Inspired by aislin04's _Kyuubi's Mother_.

Chapter One: What was your Mother's name?

Uzumaki Naruto had never seen his parents. He didn't even know their names, but it was not something that he thought about often anyway. After he turned eight and the Hokage told him that he was unsure as to the identities of Naruto's parents the little boy stopped wondering. Later, the abuse heaped on him by the village would give him the impression that the villagers were correct in saying that his status as a 'demon' had driven his parents to abandon him. No one in or out of Konoha had sought to change this view, so Naruto went with the thought that it was true and tucked the pain away in his mind where only the fox could see it.

It wasn't until a mission to take a message to Kazahana Koyuki in Yuki no Kuni that the issue returned to Naruto's mind and a question joined it.

'Hey Kyuubi? Did you have a mother?'

To say the fox was surprised at the question was an understatement. Contrary to what Naruto and every other human thought, Kyuubi didn't hate his jailor; didn't have it in him to hate the child who had not been given a choice. He really couldn't remember why he had even attacked in the first place, only remembering rage…which was strange as kitsune were known throughout demon circles as one of the least likely to be thrown into a rage. He cocked his head at the boy sitting on the far side of the bars to his prison, his eyes now a beautiful sea blue, though Naruto hadn't noticed.

_'Of course I had a mother…though I do not remember the one who birthed me. She died before I could know her.'_

'So…you don't know what it is like to have a mother?'

Kyuubi pondered this. He had an answer for the kit, but he was unsure whether or not he wanted to share with the child. The boy's earnest expression made up the fox's mind; Kyuubi's face softened and Naruto finally noticed the change in eye color.

_'I was adopted when I was a kit by…the most wonderful ningen that ever graced this world.'_

'Ningen? You were adopted by a human?'

_'Not just a human, a _miko_. A human whose abilities were perfectly created for destroying my kind.'_

If you can't guess who Kyuu's mother is…I feel bad for you! :P


	2. Kyuubi's Mother

Chapter Two: Kyuubi's Mother

Kyuubi could tell that the child he was sealed in was breaking down, ever so slowly. Over a decade of abuse with little and sometimes no support at all had finally begun to truly take its toll and the boy was breaking. The demon had managed to shift the seal just enough using the miko-ki given to him when his mother adopted him in the eyes of demons so that he shared the boy's senses; improving the child's and allowing himself a window to the world. What he saw did not make him happy; the same abuses that he had seen his hanyou friend put up with, the same fear and anger and hatred that had caused most upper level demons to hate the human race for their fickleness and fear of what they couldn't quantify. As the kit's "team" met and "trained" (which consisted of the Uchiha being trained by the Cyclops, pinky watching and drooling and kit left to his own devices) Kyuubi was not surprised that Kit decided to talk to him again. Continuing his chakra control exercises (which he had been doing since the mission to Wave) Kit brought himself into his mind to sit on the far side of the bars.

'Sooo…about your mother…could you…tell me about her?'

Kyuubi looked down into the kit's eyes, eyes the color of the sky and so like the fox's mother that the fox's own ocean blue eyes fell in mourning for the woman who had loved him unconditionally.

_"My mother…was beautiful. She was the most understanding creature I ever had the pleasure of meeting. Her eyes were…almost exactly the same color as yours, but they burned with a temper that had even the mighty Gobi respecting her. Of course he respected her because she had the gall to yell at him even with his sword to her throat."_

'Whoa, so your mother knew the Gobi?'

Kyuubi laughed and Naruto noticed that the fox did not sound nearly so menacing now, he sounded…happy.

_'Knew him? My mother was the only human to ever stand up to him and live…besides the pup he adopted, that is. Now that I think of it, you're inu friend reminds me of her. Anyway, yeah, kaa-san was eventually adopted as a sister by Gobi; he was just as devastated as I was when she vanished.'_

'Vanished? What happened? And why do you think Kiba reminds you of the Gobi's 'pup'?'

_'Before the Gobi was the Gobi he went by another name, as did I when I was just a kit. After a fight with a travelling companion of ours Gobi was injured fairly badly. He was recovering when he was found by a little human girl, who then tried to nurse him back to health. Gobi didn't care a whit for the child, but when she was killed by a pack of wolves after he had recovered, he found himself regretting her death…you know kit, to tell this story I think I am going to have to tell you all of it.'_

Outside his mindscape, Naruto wandered away from his 'team' training and back to his apartment, locking it tightly behind him and trapping every conceivable entrance with everything he had. He had a feeling that this was going to take a while. The boy sat on the floor in front of his couch and plunged into his mindscape completely, leaning against the bars of the Kyuubi's cage and listening intently as the fox made himself comfortable.

_'Now, it all started with a jewel, a hanyou named Inuyasha and a miko called Kikyo…'_


	3. Tale of the Shikon no Tama

Chapter Three: The Tale of the Shikon no Tama

_'The Shikon no Tama was the single most powerful and destructive artifact ever created. Born from the fusing of the soul of the miko Midoriko and the souls of three fused Youkai, the jewel continued to fight even centuries after the deaths of their bodies. Midoriko was so powerful that she had grasped her own soul and the souls of the Youkai holding her in their jaws and had expelled the souls through her own heart, solidifying them into the Tama. The jewel then rested in the hands of the Demon Slayer Clan for…maybe a century, but they discovered that they didn't have the ability to keep it safe and pure. You see because the jewel contained the soul of a miko and the souls of youkai it could be pure or tainted, depending on the holder. If the holder was pure and remained that way, then Midoriko would be on top of the never-ending battle, but if the holder was wicked, or tainted in any way then the demons would taint the jewel and it would be dark. The Slayers traveled to the village near one of the Goshimboku, one of the God Trees, which are unaffected by time, and gave the jewel to the miko there, a woman named Kikyo. This is where the Hanyou comes in, you see there was a rumor that the jewel could grant a wish, any wish and that a pure wish, an unselfish wish, could get rid of it for good. So Inuyasha wanted the jewel so that he could wish for himself to be a full demon, but he and Kikyo fell in love and agreed that he would wish to become fully human instead…'_

'Wait, a half-demon fell in love with a miko?'

Kyuubi laughed a strangely bright sound, and Naruto's mindscape relaxed a bit, the water on the floor disappearing with neither of them the wiser.

_'It will get stranger kit, much stranger when kaa-san joins the story. Now may I continue? Thank you. Anyway, while Inuyasha and Kikyo were…dancing around one another…Kikyo met a badly injured thief named Onigumo, who was hiding in a cave near her village. While she nursed him back to health the theif fell in love with the Miko, but she had no interest in him and he knew it. The thief decided that if he couldn't have Kikyo, no one could and offered his body to hundreds of demons in exchange for becoming a hanyou. After his transformation he attacked Kikyo in the guise of Inuyasha and Inuyasha, thinking that he was betrayed, stole the Tama. Kikyo, mortally wounded, then pinned Inuyasha to the God Tree with an enchanted arrow, putting him into what was supposed to be a never-ending sleep. With her dying breaths she told her younger sister Kaede to burn the jewel with her body so that it would never cause harm again. This wish was answered and the countryside was relatively peaceful for the next fifty years. _

"_This is where things begin to get complicated."_

_Naruto looked at the fox, who was lying just beyond the cage with his paws crossed, looking very comfortable. The ninja never noticed that one of Shippo's tails had wound up in his lap and that he was stroking it softly._

_ "Let me see if I have this right first. The jewel was made from a priestess and three demons' souls. It was then passed on to another priestess who fell in love with a hanyou who wanted to use it to become a youkai. Another human fell in love with the priestess, but she didn't love him so he allowed himself to be eaten by demons and became a hanyou himself. He then made it so that they betrayed each other and now Kikyo is dead and Inuyasha is pinned to a tree. Do I have that right so far?"_

_Shippo's amused voice pulled a smile from Naruto as he answered in the affirmative and continued the tale._

_ "Fifty years after the jewel vanished a young woman appeared as if by magic. She was dressed in a short skirt and looked remarkably similar to the dead Kikyo. She was brought by Mistress Centipede, who had torn the jewel from her body. The Shikon was back and no one knew how until the girl explained herself. She freed Inuyasha from the tree, but the jewel was taken by a crow demon and when the girl tried to shoot the crow down her sacred arrow struck the jewel, shattering it into hundreds of shards, each with the ability to increase a demon's power by a hundred fold. The girl's name was Kagome and she is the woman who would become my mother."_

_ "Wow, so she was special, huh?"_

_ "The most special person I had met both before and since, with the possible exception of yourself. She was kind to everyone, saw no distinction between youkai and ningen and treated everyone with kindness. When I met the two of them I was just a kit, whose father had been killed by a pair of brothers called the Thunder Brothers. I tried to steal the Shikon shards from them as a way of avenging my father, whose pelt was being worn by Hiten. Kagome helped me to get revenge for my father even saved and repaired my father's pelt so that it would remain in good condition for me. Miroku, the hentai houshi did the same as I did and in fact kidnapped Kagome, but she forgave him and asked him to join the group, swearing that we would destroy Naraku, the creature that Onigumo had become, before the curse he laid on the monk's family could kill him. Sango the Tai'ja and Kilala her nekomata tried to kill us, but once it was shown that she too had been tricked by Naraku she was convinced to join the group for the chance to avenge her family, who had been slaughtered, and her brother who had been controlled into killing their family. Our group grew and grew, eventually including the wolf prince Kouga and his mate Ayame, the Lord of the West Sesshomaru-sama and Myoga the flea demon. We traveled back and forth throughout the Sengoku Jidai searching for the shards, putting the jewel back together piece by piece until finally it was just our group and Naraku who had shards. The final battle was…something else kit. It was truly something else."_

*End*

merlyn1382: You're just going to have to wait and see! Though it is a distinct possibility…

Uzumaki Crossover and Crazyness101: I'll try to make the chapters longer!

Note: I need to know, would you like me to have Kagome arrive in Konoha in Chapter 5 or 6? Next chapter will be the last battle from Kagome's POV, but after that I will go into Kyuubi and Naruto's improved relationship, and then add Kagome into the mix. I also need to know who you want paired with Naruto.

Kyuubi/Shippo

Shino

Hinata

Gaara

Temari

Other (Write in)

Thank you all so very much.


	4. Battle of the Shikon

The Battle of the Shikon

Higurashi Kagome was frightened, but also determined not to show it.

The battlefield was set, their allies were in position and all that was left was to wait for the arrogant son of a bitch to show. Inuyasha stood on her left, Sango on her right and beyond her stood Miroku. Sesshomaru-sama was far to the other side of Inuyasha with Jaken simpering at his side, staff of heads ready for battle. Rin had remained with Ah-Un for the duration of the battle; the dragon would keep watch over both Sesshomaru's human pup and Kagome's kit as she had left Shippou with the dragon as well. Kouga, Ayame and their combined packs stood ready for battle behind Sesshomaru and along with them was Jinenji. The peaceful and gentle hanyou had decided that his friends were important enough to him to fight alongside them and so he was ready while his mother waited at Kaede's village for the outcome of the battle. Sesshomaru had brought his army to bear and the other lords, Hikari the Dragon lady of the North and Shiro the Naga lord of the South had brought their armies as well and all had gathered here, at the point of convergence for the lands. They waited for Naraku.

It would not be a long wait.

*(*(*(*

The arrival of Naraku and his incarnations was quick and bloody, the explosion they caused killing fifty of Sesshomaru's men and wounding many others, but the fighters jumped straight to action. Kouga and Ayame went for Kagura while Sango and Miroku, with Kirara by their side began to cleave their ways through the hoards that Naraku brought. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru went for Naraku himself while Kagome engaged Hakudoshi and Kanna. The young miko had taken Sesshomaru up on an offer that he had made to train her in the martial arts and his teaching, while brutal, were enough to make her one of if not the single most dangerous human in the Feudal Era. He had taught her the sword and the energy whip and one of his generals, a tanuki with a penchant for drinking and habit of losing himself to his rages, had taken a liking to her as a sibling and taught her to wield the wind with the use of a pair of small fans, similar to Kagura's.

Pink blades of purifying wind arched toward Kanna's mirror and the void demon merely stood and waited for her mirror to absorb it; unfortunately for her that is not what happened. The miko-ki slammed into the mirror and instead of being absorbed or reflecting back at the miko the energy sliced clean through the mirror and purified it from the outside in. Kanna was not long for the world after that and Kagome was able to concentrate on Hakudoshi, by far the more challenging opponent. The young youkai swung his weapon, only for it to be blocked by Kagome's sword, the Katana no Hikari, the Star Sword, the blade created for her by Totosai and made from mixing the two fangs from her demon brothers, a magic kitsune leaf from her son and one of her own hairs charged with her miko-ki. It was one of the most powerful swords to ever be created and had only one purpose: the protection of all that Kagome cherished.

()()

Sango threw the Hiraikotsu once more, catching it on the rebound after it had cleaved through a good portion of Naraku's remaining army. She could feel Miroku beside her, fighting with his staff and sutra, his Kazanna being rendered unusable by the presence of the Saimyosho that hovered around and through the battlefield. Despite this the pair of them fought like a well-oiled machine, twirling, striking and guarding at exactly the right moment to protect their partner and love, though neither had yet confessed. It wasn't until Sango gasped at the sight of a familiar boy in yellow armor that their rhythm was interrupted, though it was not terribly interrupted. Sango had finally come to terms with the fact that her little brother had died and would die again; she only wished to say a proper farewell this time before he went. She began her attack on her younger brother, tears staining her cheeks as she engaged the boy in combat for what would be the last time.

*(*(*(*(*

Kagura fought half-heartedly and as a result was pummeled by the wolves and the horse hanyou. She had not wanted to fight; she hated Naraku as much, if not more, than Inuyasha did, but he still held her heart and so she was forced to fight for him lest she die in horrible agony as the evil one crushed her heart in his hand. She threw attack after attack, her Dance of Bones and her Wind Blades, but every attack was just a bit off, her aim purposefully failed as she fought people that she would much rather be allied with. She had watched them in the days approaching this battle and what she had seen she envied. She envied the kindness of the Miko who, instead of destroying youkai as all those before her, healed them and befriended them instead. She envied the relationship between the Monk and the taija; they obviously loved one another even though the taija was hell-bent on ignoring it. Most of all, however, she envied the relationship between the kokitsune and the Miko; they truly loved one another as mother and son and it made the wind witch wish she could have that feeling for her own child…if she could have her own children.

She screamed as Kouga got in a lucky strike, raking his claws across her chest while Ayame kicked the wind witch in the back, driving those claws deeper as they passed. She landed at the feet of her master and Naraku looked down at her with anger in his eyes and hatred in his heart.

"You have failed me yet again Kagura. I no longer have any use for such a failure."

He said nothing else as he held the small red marble that was Kagura's heart and crushed it in his fist. The battle stopped as all looked to the wind witch at her blood curdling scream, the sound echoing for miles as she died and was reabsorbed into the abomination that called itself Naraku through a tentacle that he had sent through the dying body's back. With that action, the wolves joined the Inu-gumi in their battles against the rest of Naraku's army and Naraku himself.

*(*(*(*

Finally, the field was down to the Inu-gumi, Sesshomaru and Kouga; as Ayame had been sent with Jinenji to see to the kits they had left with Kaede. They took Kohaku's body with them, as the boy had finally fallen to his sister's attacks. Sango's tears falling to mar the peaceful face of her baby brother and the last of her family. Now the last slayer stood with Miroku beside Kagome and Inuyasha as the fight came to its climax; Naraku, alone at the other end of the field.

"Ku, ku, ku…so it has come to this! The final battle of the war, but, a question to you Inuyasha, how do you know that I am the true Naraku?"

It was Kagome who answered.

"Because, Naraku, you would never give all of your kakkera to a mere puppet!"

The evil hanyou frowned and said nothing more as he sent a large group of tentacles at the fighters, who separated and began their own attacks. It was down to this: the final battle and all of them could only hope that if they had to die that they would at least take the damn hanyou with them.

Miroku and Sango fought together atop the fire neko Kirara while Sesshomaru-sama fought with Toukijin beneath them. Inuyasha took another side of Naraku, the decision to flank the hanyou an easy and obvious one to make. Kouga took his other side. Kagome attacked with what was left of her sacred arrows, timing her attacks just right to blow chunks off the demon that had caused such heartache and pain. Finally, Naraku could take no more arrows and he knew it, so he attacked Kagome directly, seeing how she was completely open at the moment.

No one really noticed the tentacle screaming toward the young miko as they were all absorbed in their own battles with the hanyou.

The impact took Kagome's breath away as the tentacle pierced her right side, directly opposite from where the jewel rested within her, and out her back, a neat, round hole left in its wake as the hanyou yanked it out and threw another at her. This one went through her left shoulder, rendering her archery ability all but useless and the scream that the wound produced as her shoulder blade shattered under the onslaught echoed grotesquely through the trees surrounding the battlefield. Kagome barely felt it when she hit the ground and everything went dark as she lay in a rapidly growing pool of blood.

*(*(*(*

_"Guardian. Guardian, wake up please, I must speak with you urgently."_

_Kagome woke slowly, her eyes opening to a world with a pink sky and purple, almost violet grass. Midoriko stood beside the gravely injured young miko, her long black hair held up in an elegant bun by two decorative sticks that Kagome could tell doubled as weapons. Kagome struggled into a sitting position and noticed the demon beside the ancient miko. It was grotesque and twisted an amalgamation of three high class demons and yet, resembling none of them; it had no name Kagome listened as Midoriko and the demon talked, identifying themselves as the four souls of the jewel. They explained that she was their guardian and that she was the only one who could bring peace to all the souls, thus why the jewel remained inactive until her fifteenth birthday, when her powers actually activated, causing Mistress Centipede to awaken and attempt to claim the jewel. Then Midoriko told Kagome how to finish Naraku off for good, but it would mean leaving her family in both times as she would go to where and when she was needed, though the ancient miko did promise Kagome that she would see her demon friends again soon after her departure (hint, hint). _

_Kagome steeled herself and opened her eyes to her newly minted, pain filled world._


	5. Family is Family

Family is Forever, No Matter the Form You Wear

Shippo and Naruto had gotten on like a house on fire once Naruto realized that the fox was not all bad and Shippo realized that the kit was just like he was when _he_ was a kit. Telling Naruto about his mother had opened something between them, a brotherhood that had Shippo feeling very much like a combination of proud brother and proud teacher as he began to teach Naruto how to fight and the legends of the Kitsune.

_"Listen Kit, you might as well be a kitsune hanyou with the amount of my chakra and blood you have within you. You _are _my_ _little brother now and I will _not _have you thinking that demons are all horrible like the humans in your village would like for you and everyone else to believe."_

_ "What about my friends? What if-"_

_ "Kit, if I learned anything from my Kaa-san it is that if your friends cannot accept who and what you are then they do not deserve to be called friends."_

Naruto had nodded at that and thus the lessons had begun. Every day that Naruto had team "training" he would go into the woods under the guise of practicing his tree-walking, but would instead be taught by Shippo. The kitsune taught the kit about kitsune magic and how to use it among many other things that demons are taught as they grow up, things that Shippo's kaa-san Kagome had learned from her various youkai friends and subsequently taught to Shippo and Naruto soaked up everything his 'aniki' taught him like a dry sponge placed in a glass of water. Much to Shippo's surprise Naruto had a gift for plant manipulation and the light use of miko-ki; as opposed to the use of the dormant houshi powers that lay just under the seal holding Shippo in. The child could access the power, but he could not use it, supplementing it instead with the miko-ki that Shippo provided to him, which was both less damaging and easier to control that the youki that Shippo had originally given the child on the bridge in Nami.

_"Try again Kit and remember: let the plant grow how it will, just supply the energy for now."_

Naruto sat at the base of a large tree and nodded as he concentrated on the bulb in his hand and allowed his chakra to surround it. The bulb was one that he was unfamiliar with, but his aniki seemed to know what it was and so Naruto was willing to work with it if only to find out why Shippo had been so excited to see it. So Naruto concentrated until there was a thin layer of his bright blue chakra around the bulb, which slowly turned a deep green until a tiny shoot appeared at the top of the bulb. The plant grew much faster after that, leaves followed by stout stems and beautiful deep purple, almost black bell-like blooms proved that, while the child had done as requested, he had still used too much chakra. Where one single Queen of the Night tulip should have been there were four and Naruto could only marvel at their simple beauty. Shippo could not hide his amusement, a warmth that pulled a bright smile to the face of his 'Kit'.

_"Well done Kit. They were my mother's favorites."_

*(*(*

Kagome's eyes opened and nearly closed again from the pain that slammed into her consciousness from her body. She was badly hurt and she knew it, but she also had a job to do and it was a job that was hers and hers alone. Slowly, painfully slowly, she sat up and then climbed to her feet, unsteady, but determined to finish this once and for all. Her movements gained the attention of all on the battlefield as all of her friends and their enemy had thought that she was dead. Her left leg could not support any weight, so she was balance precariously on her right with her right arm dangling all but useless at her side. Her hair was a tangled mess and her weapons lay scattered about her except for the bow given to her by Kaede and her last arrow, which lay across the string. This arrow was a gift to her from the gentle hanyou Jinenji, who had made her a brace of arrows from the wood of one of the Goshimboku and fletched them with feathers from the last of the phoenix youkai. She brought the bow up to firing position, her arms shaking with pain and fatigue as the arrow shuddered in her unsure grasp.

"Ha, ha! The little miko thinks that she can hit anything shaking like that? Ha! Give it your best shot then Miko!"

Kagome looked down the arrow straight at Naraku and stopped shaking. Her rage flared as she thought of all the things that this…creature had done, both to her and to her friends, her family. She thought of Inuyasha and Kikyo, separated by this thing. She thought of Sango and Kohaku, being forced to fight one another because Naraku thought it entertaining. She thought of Miroku, whose family had all died too soon thanks to the curse that Naraku had lain on his grandfather. She thought of Kouga and Ayame, who had lost many pack members to the incarnations of the hanyou. Finally she thought of her little Shippou, whose father had been killed for the shard of a jewel that should never have been created, a jewel that should have been safe with Kikyo had Naraku not coveted both the miko and the jewel. Kagome didn't yell when she released the arrow, but her voice was heard across the battlefield to every youkai and human ear.

"Naraku, Midoriko sends her regards."

*(*(*(*(*(*

The glow that surrounded the arrow was far brighter than any miko arrow seen before, the brilliant pink of Kagome's miko-ki surrounding a core of bright blue and a tinge of dark purple that showed that even the demons within the jewel had aided their protector in her final attack. The arrow streaked closer and closer to Naraku and the hanyou began to move out of its way, only to find that he couldn't. The shards in his possession, a good sized hunk of the jewel, glowed a malevolent purple tinged with blue and Naraku finally realized that there was no escape for him. He didn't even have time to scream as the arrow slammed through his shield of miasma and straight into where his heart should have been; right where he had kept the jewel. The arrow struck the jewel and the sky lit up with the light from the impact as the shards that had been together suddenly separated again, only to speed to their injured protector and begin to circle her, the shards coalescing as they spun. Two shards met, then four more and then there were too many to count as they came together to form the complete Shikon no Tama. The jewel pulsed once, twice and then drove straight into the wound that Naraku had made, burying itself deep in Kagome's flesh before going dormant once again. The miko smiled at the feeling of warmth that the Shikon was giving her, but she still felt incomplete. Her soul was still fragmented, a part of it still remaining within the clay shell of the dead priestess Kikyo. She knew that she would have to deal with her eventually, but…she was simply too tired.

Kagome never noticed when she collapsed unconscious.

She never heard the others cry out for her, nor did she feel when she started to vanish, never to return to the Sengoku Jidai again.

*(*(*(*(*(*(*

It was another beautiful day in Konoha and Naruto was once again training with Shippo. Kakashi had, once again left Naruto to his own devices as he taught Sasuke and Sakura watched the Uchiha lecherously, but the kitsune had finally managed to get Naruto to stop caring about them.

*Flashback*

_"Kit, they do not matter; no one who cares as little for you as they deserve your care or consideration."_

"But Shippo-sensei, why don't they care? Kakashi-sensei is supposed to teach all of us, but he only teaches the teme, am I not good enough? I've improved so much!"

_"Yes you have kit, but you must understand that humans…tend to fixate themselves on one or two things. If those things are proven false or break down before them then they tend not to adapt well. your sensei is what they termed as a 'genius' and all 'genius' people, be they human or youkai, are fixed in their opinions. You were still acting as a young kitling when he met you; you had been sabotaged at school and therefore were below where you should have been skill-wise. Because of these factors the Scarecrow labeled you a lost cause and now, because of his 'genius' mentality, he cannot break himself from the opinion. Do you understand kit?"_

*End Flashback*

Naruto had understood and so had decided to take a more…demonic approach. Those who were not skulk did not deserve his attentions if they refused to remain fair and amicable. So far his skulk only included Hokage-ojii-san, Iruka-oniisan, and the Ichiraku father and daughter team. The rest of the humans on the planet would be considered neutral until they proved otherwise, though most of Konoha had proved that they were enemies. At the moment Naruto was sitting in lotus position on the lake with leaves sticking to every available bit of skin that he could reach while listening to Shippo lecture him about youkai etiquette…again. Naruto was getting better and answering the questions that Shippo would randomly ask him about certain made-up situations, but there were still things that the kit didn't understand. Naruto just thought of this as excellent practice, since there really weren't so many differences between human and youkai etiquette that it could get him in trouble if he used the lessons to deal with the human clients he would be getting later in his career.

"So when dealing with a Taiyoukai one is to bow and wait for acknowledgment before doing anything else? What happens if you don't wait?"

_"Well…it depends on the Taiyoukai. Kouga, the wolf-lord of the east would probably growl, but he's not very proper himself. The snake-lord of the north would sink his fangs into you for the presumption and the kitsune-lord of the south would most likely laugh and the get down to business. He really doesn't care for formalities. The dog-lord of the west…Sesshomaru would probably kill you just on principle, but he might just hurt you really badly. It really depends on what kind of mood he's in."_

Naruto nodded both internally and externally, about to ask another question when a sudden surge of miko-ki caused his attention to waver and sent him crashing into the lake, the leaves drifting away on the ripples caused by his body entering the water. Naruto surfaced and zeroed in on the source of the miko-ki almost instantly, but what really shocked him was the whisper of Shippo echoing through his mind.

_"Mother"_

*(*(*(*

The hospital staff was both shocked and disgusted when Naruto crashed through the double doors leading to the lobby, a bloody and torn young woman clutched to his chest.

"She needs help NOW!"

Shizune, apprentice to Lady Tsunade, noticed that there was something in her 'little brother's voice that disturbed her, so instead of waiting to see if anyone would respond she took over immediately.

"Get me some nurses and three other medics! I'm heading to the OR! Naruto, go get Tsunade-sama!"

Naruto nodded and took off, no questions asked.

_Hurry kit, mother may not have very long. Naraku really did a number on her. _

_ "Is she really your kaa-san Shippo?"_

_ Yes. _

Naruto fidgeted a little as he sprinted for the Hokage tower, running up the side of the building rather than wasting time arguing with the secretary, who never let him in immediately because she was a 'Kyuubi hater'.

_"Do you think…will she like me Shippo-aniki?"_

The fox was a bit taken aback, Naruto usually only called him aniki when he was really worried about something. The fox's face relaxed from his shocked expression and adopted a soft smile, one that Kagome had taught him all those years ago.

_Kaa-san will love you. Family is family, no matter what form it wears and having me inside you makes you family._


End file.
